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Russia’s envoy to US says Trump protected America’s interests at Helsinki summit

According to Antonov, it is necessary to begin with small joint projects to break the ice in Russian-US relations

MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump defended his country’s interests at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told reporters at a press briefing at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

"The first reaction [to the Russian-US] summit I heard from US reporters and politicians was tough criticism and stiff opposition. The impression is that some of them just did not listen to what their president was saying and how the president upheld national interests," he said.

PUTIN-TRUMP MEETING IN HELSINKI

The ambassador noted that he refrains from giving positive comments about the US leader considering biased views on the so-called Russian meddling in US policies expressed by media and politicians in the United States. "I am afraid to say anything positive about the US president, because when American journalists or politicians read that, they will say that Russia is again interfering in the domestic affairs thus helping Donald Trump. I believe it will be very difficult to him to comply with the agreements that were reached at the summit. At any rate, we will try to help our American counterparts to the best of our ability," the diplomat stressed.

According to Antonov, it is necessary to begin with small joint projects to break the ice in Russian-US relations. "I believe that, at the first stage, we need to find some small joint projects, which would make it possible to break the impasse and start dealing with the avalanche of contradictions and challenges that we have," the ambassador pointed out.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump held their first full-fledged meeting in Helsinki. The two leaders’ tete-a-tete meeting lasted slightly over two hours. Delegation members later joined the two presidents for a working luncheon. The Russian delegation was comprised of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov. The US delegation included Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton. The expanded session lasted about two hours.

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